Mindful Moments Countdown w/ Kira Willey: Gain focus with a Rainstorm

With the world all abuzz, stillness and focus can be hard for young children. There’s so much to do! So much to play with! As kids grow and enter school, the direction of their attention changes and the need for focus becomes more necessary.

Mornings can be especially tough for kids to zero in on the tasks at hand with the pressure of getting to school on time. For younger children, sitting for five minutes to eat a bite of breakfast can be tricky. I even find this to be true with my 7-year-old daughter. And then there’s later in the day when kids may have a “screen time hangover,” or maybe they’re overtired or just wound up – usually when parents are winding down.

Often I find myself wishing I could stop time for just a few minutes, slow things down. Breathe. So how does one find a brief reprieve?

There is an answer!Kira Willey’s forthcoming album, Mindful Moments for Kids, offers kids (and the parents who love them) 30 quick and easy ways to help sharpen focus, inspire a more centered energy, find some calm, and settle into a peaceful state of being. The actions are presented in a fun way, encouraging kids to participate as though they are playing along with Kira right in the room.

Mindful Moments for Kids releases this Friday, January 15, 2016 and I am so happy to participate with Kira in her #MindfulMomentsCountdown. As a special treat, for Day 3 of the countdown, listeners can download a track from the album (available as a free download for 24 hours from the time this post was published).

Today’s mindful moment is called “Rainstorm,” which leads kids through a simple exercise to create the sounds of a rainstorm (lightning, thunder, wind and rain), using their bodies as instruments. The track calls upon the familiarity and simplicity of nature’s elements and offers kids a whole body and mind experience.

Rub your hands together to make the sound of the wind, it’s really picking up! I feel a few raindrops…tap your finger and thumb together to make the sound of the raindrops coming down. Now it’s really starting to pour! Hands on your lap, make the sound of the rain pouring down, faster and faster…

“Rainstorm” provides wonderfully tactile and sensory input to get kids in a centered and attentive frame of mind, any time of day. What I love about this track is that kids are tuning into their bodies and the actions are simple enough that kids can bring them along on car rides or onto the playground.